Undercover
by Pri0n
Summary: After an unexpected experience, Gina Linetti begins developing feelings she never expected to have. Feelings, specifically, for none other than Detective Rosa Diaz. When the Universe begins putting them into countless situations together, the two women struggle to understand their complex emotions and simultaneously struggle to keep one another safe. (Set mid-way through Season 5).
1. Chapter 1

There was definitely something off about Gina when she walked into work on the morning of June 5th, and that was instantly noticed by Rosa and Charles. The Civilian Administrator had sauntered into the bullpen twenty-five minutes late, dressed in a clearly unwashed grey hoodie and sporting a designer pair of sunglasses. The coffee cup she clutched onto for dear life confirmed her colleagues' suspicions and as Gina sat at her desk and immediately dropped her head into her folded arms, Rosa and Charles turned to one another and simultaneously voiced their thoughts:

" _Hangover_ "

Whilst the detective wanted nothing more than to approach Gina and tease her about her current obvious suffering, Rosa was stuck with an ever-growing pile of paperwork which she knew she needed to spend the morning tending to. So, she kept her feet kicked up on her desk as she filled out file after file with lacklustre movements of her pen. Soon, Charles and Jake left the precinct to tackle a Grand Theft Auto case and as the office grew quieter throughout the morning, the dark-haired woman couldn't resist stealing glances across at Gina. The other woman had came into work hungover countless times, but something seemed much different this morning which confused Rosa. Gina hadn't made one sassy or snide remark since arriving at work, which the detective knew was a bad sign.

After resisting her urges for long enough, Rosa dropped her pen onto her desk with a clatter and dumped her finished file on top of her pile of completed documents. She got to her feet and made a beeline to Gina's desk, folding her arms and pursing her lips as she leaned against it and stared down at the brunette. Gina was still sat with her head in her hands and apparently didn't notice the looming presence of Rosa, until the taller woman cleared her throat intrusively.

"You look like dog shit, Linetti."

Finally, Gina lifted her head from her hands and peered over her sunglasses at Rosa. The unamused expression on her colleague's face only made the detective give a small, mischievous smirk, which didn't falter when she finally got her reply.

"Aren't you the most charming woman in the world? You really have a way with women, Rosa."

Gina's response was sarcastic and bitter, and lacked the usual playful bite. If Rosa didn't know better, she'd say Gina was actually annoyed to have the detective standing over her, interrogating her. However, Rosa had never been very good at understanding social cues, so stood her ground stubbornly.

"It's just the truth. What happened to you last night? You sleep in a bush or something?"

"Will you just leave it? You don't see me coming into work every morning asking you what _questionable_ stuff you get up to in your free time!"

The bite behind Gina's response was undeniable this time and Rosa raised her eyebrows in surprise. It was uncharacteristic of the woman who usually believed she was the female reincarnation of Jesus Christ himself to be so needlessly harsh to the woman feared by most of the precinct.

Sensing that she was only being a nuisance, Rosa huffed and left Gina alone, making her way back to her own desk to begin on another file. It most definitely wasn't the ideal way to spend a morning and the hostility she'd gotten from someone she considered to be her friend proceeded to put her in a sour mood for the next few hours.

* * *

At lunch that day, Rosa sat herself down on the sofa in the break room with a steaming mug of herbal tea. She didn't feel hungry, so figured the hot beverage should be enough to get her through her rather uneventful day. The only other people occupying the break room were Hitchcock and Scully and their embarrassing conversation about the origin of every stain on their shirts was unbearable for the detective, so she slipped her earphones in and tried to relax. Although, it turned out that Rosa's rather heavy taste in music didn't help her angst, so she soon tore out the earbuds with a huff and finished off her drink.

On her way out of the break room, Detective Santiago quite literally walked into Rosa and gave a small squeal of surprise. The other woman had been distracted by looking over her shoulder as she walked through the door, so she had no idea that the leather-clad detective was on her way out of the room.

"Diaz! I'm so sorry!" Amy gasped, clearly astonished by her mistake whilst Rosa simply folded her arms and scowled at her, "I wasn't paying attention, I was looking at Gina. She's been really strange today, don't you think? I mean, I know she's hungover, but you'd think she'd be in a good mood after her friend's bachelorette party last night-"

"-What bachelorette party?" Rosa interrupted. She hadn't heard the assistant mention any party which only made her more suspicious about Gina, who was the type of woman who spent days on end bragging after a 'wild night out'.

"Oh, didn't she mention? Her friend Linda is getting married to her girlfriend in a couple weeks and Gina was really excited for her first night out at a gay bar…"

The new information caused Rosa to furrow her brow in confusion. The fact that last night was Gina Linetti's first night at a gay bar was interesting, and it was even more interesting that she was now acting very strangely this morning. She knew that Gina wouldn't feel uncomfortable in such an environment - she had even been the most nonchalant person when Rosa came out as bisexual a few months ago, so she was obviously comfortable with the whole ordeal. If Rosa didn't know Gina better, she'd even question the woman's sexuality herself. There had been the occasional moment where the brunette had made a comment that suggested she was interested in women, and Rosa couldn't forget how Gina had remarked that the two of them would make a ' _hot ass couple_ '. She felt as though she was onto something, and narrowed her eyes across the room at the hungover woman.

"I'm going to get to the bottom of what's up with Linetti" Rosa announced, pushing her way past Santiago and heading back to her desk.

* * *

It was mid afternoon when Jake and Charles returned from their case and the latter instantly noticed Rosa when he stepped into the bullpen. She was sat hunched at her desk with her pen gripped in her hand, staring over at Gina who was silently texting with her sunglasses still on. When Charles approached Rosa, he noticed the piece of paper she had been jotting notes on which she'd conveniently titled 'Why Gina Linetti Looks Like Trash'.

"You've still not found out what's going on with her?" Charles asked, the shock laced in his tone, "You're one of our best detectives and you can't even solve what's wrong with G-"

The short man suddenly stopped in his tracks when Rosa shot him a venomous glare.

"Boyle, I have a lead" she snapped, not daring to break her intimidating stare with Charles, "See, last night Gina attended her friend Linda's bachelorette party at Metropolitan gay bar. She had a good time, had quite a bit to drink, but then vanished from the scene at around one in the morning. Strangely enough, another friend of Linda's, Nikola Salt, also vanished at the same time. So, my theory is, those two got up to something last night. I'm yet to decide on what."

At this point, Boyle's mouth was slightly agape with shock. With wide eyes, he stammered on his response. "H-how did you work all that out?" Rosa only smirked and reached out to her computer, tilting the monitor so Charles could see the screen.

"Facebook, Charles" she told him simply and began to scroll through the images Gina had been tagged in the night prior. There were plenty of photographs of her enjoying cocktails, dancing, and having quite a lot of fun with Linda and her friends. As she got to the photos that were posted after one in the morning, Gina was nowhere to be seen in group pictures. With a proud smirk, Rosa turned back to Charles who appeared rather impressed.

"Well, what do you think happened?" He asked, grabbing a chair from the side of Rosa's desk and sitting down besides her. The dark-haired woman glanced at her colleague with disapproval of his lack of respect for her personal space, but decided to carry on with her lead anyway.

"That's where I'm kinda stumped. I suppose they could have just shared a cab home, because Gina had work this morning and maybe this Nikola girl did too. But that's too boring and doesn't explain why she's acting so weird. On the most extreme end of the spectrum, perhaps the two were involved in drug use. That definitely would explain why Gina looks like death this morning."

Charles pondered Rosa's statements for a moment before shaking his head. "There's no way Gina would do that. When we were smooshing booties, she suggested we try poppers, but then she chickened out because she thought they'd 'ruin her exquisite mind'. What else could it be?"

The latina woman took a moment to recover from the unnecessarily personal anecdote Charles had given before taking a subtle deep breath and continuing. "Well," she sighed, putting her pen down slightly and leaning back in her chair to kick her boots up onto the desk, "that leads me to my final and perhaps most believable lead. Gina went home _with_ Nikola Salt."

Surprised, Boyle gasped a little too loud which caused Gina to glance in their direction, but a sharp jab of Rosa's elbow to his ribcage soon quietened the man down again. Once Gina's attention was quite clearly drawn back to her phone, Rosa went to continue, but was silenced once more by a voice suddenly sounding from the other side of her.

"Have you cracked the Gina case?" Amy whispered, crouched besides Rosa's chair. The biker rolled her eyes and looked between Amy and Charles' eager faces with disbelief before continuing.

"I think Gina boning Linda's friend Nikola is the most plausible theory. It explains almost everything. Have you ever seen Gina wear a simple, grey hoodie before? No, because she hates plain grey clothes, which is why she hates almost everything you wear, Amy."

Santiago frowned a little at Rosa's jab, glancing down at the ground, resembling a scolded puppy. Rosa flashed a quick wide smile at this before carrying on with her pitch.

"Gina doesn't own a grey hoodie, that's Nikola's. I think she slept there last night so didn't have an outfit for work this morning. And she's wearing the same jeans that she wore out last night." Amy and Charles both nodded along in agreement. It was definitely uncharacteristic of Gina to wear something unclean and untasteful. "Secondly, it explains why she's not herself today. When I tried to ask her what she got up to last night she got real defensive with me. It's because she's ashamed. Probably not ashamed that she slept with a woman, but ashamed that she cheated on Milton. Sorry, Boyle."

"Oh, cousin Milton will be heartbroken!" Charles interrupted, only to meet glares from both Rosa and Amy this time.

"Lastly, it explains why she's been on her phone all day. She's either confessed to Milton and they're arguing about it, or she's still talking to Nikola about what happened last night. I just don't know how we confront her about this."

At this point, Rosa hoped for advice from her friends, but sadly Amy and Charles looked as clueless as her. The dark-haired woman groaned with frustration and leaned back in her chair. Her colleagues side-eyed her cautiously before she barked, "Get back to work, you two! And get back to me if you think of anything!".

* * *

Meanwhile, Gina felt awful. Her stomach was unsettled from the sheer amount of alcohol she'd consumed the night before and the bright light of the precinct made her head throb. This wasn't the first time she had came into work hungover, but she could usually battle through the feeling of death itself that came after too much drinking. The issue today was her own racing thoughts, which made every conscious second unbearable. In that moment, Gina wanted nothing more than to crawl into her bed, wrap herself up in her unicorn blankets and sleep all her troubles away. Realistically, however, she knew all of her problems wouldn't magically resolve if she fell asleep. Even though she'd made sure to keep herself to herself today, she also knew that the only way to tackle her situation was to ask for advice.

Gina Linetti hated asking for advice. It made her seem like she actually had _emotions_ which was a reputation she wasn't ready to have. Nonetheless, the temptation to open up about what really happened to her last night was growing too strong to resist. It was obvious that her colleagues were concerned about her - Charles wasn't too good at hiding his feelings and she'd felt the piercing stare of Rosa on her all morning.

 _Rosa_. Deep down, Gina felt the urge to talk to Rosa about this. Out of everyone in the precinct, she had the most experience with the issues Gina was going through. Sure, she could always talk to Jake about this, but he wouldn't really understand her struggle from a personal perspective.

Eventually, after a long moment of internal pep-talking, Gina got to her feet. She made her way across the bullpen to Rosa's desk and placed her hands down, leaning over it to address the detective. Rosa seemed startled to suddenly have the hungover woman lurking over her, but leaned forward with intrigue. The assistant wasn't entirely sure what to say to begin this conversation, so internally panicked for a moment before blurting out:

"Meet me in Babylon in five minutes!"

With that, Gina had hurried out of the bullpen. Rosa blinked. She most definitely hadn't expected Gina to be the one to begin talking to her about whatever issues she had going on today, but it did make the detective's work a lot easier. Without hesitation, Rosa got to her feet and began to head to the secret bathroom. Charles and Amy were both staring at her with surprise, but she left the room without telling them what was going on. If Gina wanted to talk to her in private, she decided to at least give her that right to secrecy.

Despite her confusion, Rosa remained moderately calm as she made her way through the 99th Precinct to Babylon. She pushed at the moveable wall of file boxes and stepped inside of the secret bathroom when she arrived, finding Gina leaned anxiously against the sink with her arms folded. Sensing the seriousness of whatever Gina was about to confess to, Rosa pulled the file boxes back into the doorway to give them some privacy and frowned at her friend, stepping closer.

"What's up? I don't think I've ever seen you this down…" Rosa confessed. Surprising to Gina, there was a hint of concern in Rosa's usually wooden tone. This caused her to look up from the ground and lock eyes with the latina, letting out a shaky sigh. The silence between them that followed was heavy, and Rosa raised a scarred eyebrow with anticipation. Eventually, Gina let out a frustrated groan and blurted out what was on her mind:

"I slept with a woman last night!"

Even though she had already presumed so, it was still shocking to Rosa to hear the confession come from Gina's lips. Throughout the years, she had figured that Gina was rather fluid in her sexuality and that she had little care for who she was attracted to, but she had an overwhelming sense of pride to finally know she was right. All of this time, she was convinced that she was the only queer woman in the precinct, so it was oddly comforting to know somebody else truly understood her.

"Why are you smirking?" Gina suddenly exclaimed, clearly annoyed that she hadn't gauged a response from Rosa yet. Rosa, on the other hand, was oblivious to the fact her lips had tightened into a grin. Mildly embarrassed, she relaxed her face again and rapidly tried to formulate a socially acceptable response.

"What about Milton?" Rosa finally asked, ignoring the prior question. Of course, she had already figured out what had happened, but she presumed that it wouldn't be of any comfort to Gina to know that she and her fellow detectives had been trying to solve the mystery of Gina's foul mood today. So, Rosa played dumb.

The assistant let out another huff and ran her fingers nervously through her hair, clearly distressed. "I told him this morning. I couldn't lie to him, I'm no cheat. But he didn't take the news well and he's told me he's finished with me" Gina confessed wistfully.

Rosa frowned. She hesitantly reached out to place her hand on Gina's bicep, giving a gentle but reassuring squeeze. "If it's any consolation, you always deserved better than a Boyle anyway" she admitted. Deep human emotion was difficult for Rosa, so she hoped her words could somehow help.

Thankfully, Gina smiled a little at that. It was the first time Rosa had seen Gina do so all day and it caused a small smile to twitch at the corners of her lips too. When their eyes met, a small laugh escaped Gina. Somewhat infectiously, Rosa's smile only grew wider.

"This situation is _so_ crazy!" Gina chuckled. Even though she was laughing, Rosa could hear her friend's voice wavering, as though she was on the verge of tears. On the other hand, she could almost see the relief melt off of the brunette's shoulders now she had confessed to her activities last night, and it was comforting to witness. The latina chuckled along with her colleague and shrugged a shoulder dismissively.

"I get it. I remember the first time I slept with a girl too… It definitely left me confused for quite some time. But you'll be okay, Linetti. And hey, I'm actually quite proud of you for telling me."

"Look at you, you big softie" Gina teased back, but deep down she felt solace build inside of her from Rosa's words. Unable to resist, the shorter woman stepped forward and wrapped her arms around the detective's shoulders, pulling her into a close hug. Gina knew that the other woman wasn't a fan of unnecessary human contact, but decided to take a chance on Rosa in her time of need. Surprisingly, Rosa eventually reciprocated and laced her arms around Gina's waist, giving her a brief squeeze of affection before stepping back and clearing her throat somewhat awkwardly.

"I better get back to work…" Rosa began, slipping her thumbs into the belt of her jeans and glancing at her toes, "but if you need anyone to talk to, you know where I am."

With that, Rosa turned on her heels and pushed the file cabinet aside, slipping out of Babylon. As she walked down the corridor back to the bullpen, she heard Gina's voice call down the corridor after her.

"Thank you, Rosa."

It was rare to hear Gina Linetti thank somebody sincerely, so Rosa couldn't suppress the grin that spread over her features as she walked away from their secret bathroom. She still couldn't quite believe that the colleague she'd known closely for years had finally had a gay experience and it caused her to feel an odd mixture of emotions. Was this pride? Was it smugness? Rosa wasn't quite sure why she was so happy about the conversation she'd just had with Gina, but she considered it best to simply push it to the back of her mind for the rest of the working day and get on with the last of her paperwork.

She didn't tell Charles or Amy what had happened in Babylon, despite the multiple attempts from the detectives to get Rosa to talk. The latina only considered it fair: she had no right to tell people that Gina had slept with a woman, similar to how nobody had the right to make Rosa come out in all of her years working for the Nine-Nine. The confusion consumed Charles and Amy, who had also noticed that Gina was considerably more chipper after her private conversation with Rosa. Nonetheless, at the end of the day Rosa tidied her desk and grabbed her motorcycle helmet without a word, leaving for the night with the new information about Gina stored favourably in mind.

She hoped Gina wouldn't struggle with her situation too much tonight, but for now, Rosa had a nice night planned ahead of her.


	2. Chapter 2

The long, eventful day at work had taken its toll on Rosa. She could feel how tight her muscles were as she drove away from the precinct; her shoulders felt as tough as rocks and ached with every movement of her body as her bike roared through Brooklyn. Usually, she'd want to collapse onto her sofa with a beer after days like this and watch an old movie, but tonight she had even better plans.

She wasn't heading home tonight. Instead, Rosa's girlfriend had called her earlier and when the latina had explained how long her day had been, she'd offered to cook a meal for her this evening. It was a sweet, romantic gesture that made Rosa smile to think about and she couldn't wait to knock on Natalie's door.

Nobody at work knew anything about Rosa's girlfriend yet, they simply knew she existed. Her colleagues had instantly picked up that 'Tiffany' was an alias, but they all knew better than to pressure the intimidating woman into telling them her partner's real name. Perhaps one day she would open up to them, but coming out had been enough of an emotional drainage for Rosa already. Until she was ready for another dramatic confession, she planned to go back to her usual, stolid self for some time.

After what felt like an eternity on the road, Rosa finally pulled her bike up outside of Natalie's apartment. She unmounted and pulled her helmet off, shaking her head to volumize her hair once more before holding it beneath her arm and approaching the door. Within moments of pressing the buzzer for her girlfriend's apartment, she heard a telling click of the lock and pushed the door open. Natalie lived on the third floor of the apartment block and instead of wasting time waiting around for the elevator, Rosa took the stairs briskly instead. Once eventually outside the right door, she rapped her knuckles against the wood and waited for it to be opened.

It only took a few seconds for the door to swing open and Rosa couldn't disguise the grin on her lips as she took in the sight of her girlfriend. Natalie's long, blonde hair was flowing down her shoulders and she was sporting a simple, flowy kimono over a rather casual tank top and jeans. Rosa didn't disguise the fact that her eyes slowly trailed down the woman's body, and when she met her deep green gaze once more, Natalie reached forward to take the motorcycle helmet out of her arms to place it aside, pulling Rosa inside.

Rosa could hear the soft murmur of music coming from the lounge but before she could investigate, the door was closed behind her and Natalie's lips were on hers. Hanging out with the blonde almost instantaneously made Rosa forget her tough day and when she tangled her arms around the petite woman's waist and pressed their torsos together as they shared a long kiss, she felt relaxation flood through her veins.

"Hey, babe" Rosa smiled smugly when she finally pulled back from the kiss. Mirroring her smile, Natalie trailed her hands down Rosa's leather-jacket clad chest and chuckled, returning the greeting. Her fingers deviously wrapped around the lapels of Rosa's jacket and she gave a small tug, prompting the detective to follow her to the lounge.

As she'd suspected, the lounge had been mood lit and music filled the silent room. It wasn't exactly romantic music, though. Natalie was quite into hip-hop, which contradicted Rosa's usual taste in rock, but her girlfriend had been slowly turning her to the genre.

"This music is garbage" Rosa teased, but the telling grin on her face proved that she didn't mean what she quipped. She knew it was Natalie's favourite Kendrick Lamar song playing currently, so only smirked wider when she saw the offended expression on her girlfriend's face. Rosa shrugged her leather jacket off and tossed it onto the sofa, stretching her toned arms above her head in a failed attempt to stop the aching. She noticed Natalie's wondering eyes and quirked an eyebrow - feeling the sexual tension between the two of them begin to build already.

When the blonde began slowly approaching her, Rosa expected things to already get heated between them. Instead, Natalie simply picked up a bottle of Budweiser and handed it to Rosa.

"Figured you'd need a drink tonight. I've got dinner in the oven, too."

Rosa's dark eyes were locked on her girlfriend's as she took the beer out of her hand and took a long swig. The latina had a good idea of what could help relieve her tension tonight, but she figured it was more appropriate to spend some time relaxing with Natalie first.

"Honestly, you're a lifesaver tonight. Work was such a pain. How was your day?"

Rosa finally sat herself down on the sofa, relaxing back into the velvet cushions and letting out a sigh of relief. Natalie placed herself besides her and as Rosa wrapped an arm around her shoulders, the other woman cuddled against her side a little.

"It was a pretty uneventful day for me. Same old shit, you know? I know all my clients quite well by now and I think most are on the road to recovery. Although Stan, one of my bipolar patients, is struggling a lot lately. He's been put on suicide watch again which gets me down."

Rosa frowned a little as her girlfriend explained her tough day and she caressed her hand up and down Natalie's bicep comfortingly. It was upsetting that both of them had such impactful jobs - it meant they often brought all of the burdens home every night and struggled to stop thinking about work. This time, however, Natalie waved a hand dismissively. She didn't want them to wallow in thoughts of work tonight. She wanted them to have a good time.

"It's okay, now you're here I'll stop thinking about it, I'm sure" Natalie grinned, leaning closer to her girlfriend to steal a quick kiss before the ring of the oven timer sounded through the apartment. Excited for Rosa to taste her cooking, the blonde sprung to her feet. "That'll be our dinner! I'll only be a minute!" she exclaimed before hurrying out of the lounge and into the kitchen, leaving Rosa to smile to herself.

For a few moments, Rosa stayed on the couch and swigged at her bottle of beer. She definitely felt comfortable at Natalie's apartment, but her taste in music was beginning to get a little unbearable, so Rosa got to her feet and sauntered across the room to Natalie's laptop. The other woman had one of her playlists on, so a mischievous Rosa decided to place one of her own playlists in the queue to come on later.

Pleased with her work, the detective checked her phone. To her surprise, she had a new message from Gina. When she opened it, the message read:

 _Thank you for listening to me today. It's nice knowing you've been through the same thing. I'll even buy you tea in the morning to show how thankful I am - you should know I never buy anything for anyone so be honoured, Diaz!_

Rosa couldn't help but chuckle to herself at her friend's sassiness. She quickly typed out a reply and sent it just before Natalie called from the kitchen, telling her to come through to the dining room for dinner. Rosa dropped her phone on top of her jacket on the sofa and left the room, hungry for whatever homemade deliciousness her girlfriend had cooked up.

* * *

Gina hadn't expected to get a response from Rosa when she'd sent her uncharacteristically sentimental text, so she raised an eyebrow with surprise when the detective's name flashed up at the top of her screen as she scrolled through her social medias. Usually, she wouldn't read texts instantly. She didn't want people to think she was too eager to read what they had to say - nobody should feel as though they were special to Gina Linetti. This time, though, she couldn't resist.

 _Shut up, Linetti. You don't need to thank me for anything. I mean it when I say I'm here to help and I hope you're doing alright tonight. P.S. I'll take a peppermint tea tomorrow. Don't expect me to ever pay you back._

The fact that there was somehow still a bite to Rosa's words even when communicating through text made Gina roll her eyes. She was about to reply when a sudden, harsh wail of tears came from The Enigma. With a groan, Gina placed her phone down and got to her feet, walking from her couch to the crib to pick her daughter up. She'd been crying all night, as though she could sense that things weren't okay between her parents. Bouncing her daughter lightly in her arms to soothe her, Gina made her way back to the sofa and sat down.

"Shh, Iggy, it's okay. Momma's as chill as ever, there's nothing to cry about" she soothed, rubbing comforting circles over the baby's back. Of course, it was a lie. Gina hadn't felt alright all day. She'd felt remotely comforted during her short conversation with Rosa, but as soon as the fiery latina had left the precinct, Gina went back to feeling as guilty as ever. Milton had been ignoring her texts all day and the fact that she had no idea what was going on with him made her feel a pit of dread in her stomach. She wasn't used to feeling like this, which made everything considerably worse.

Suddenly, Gina was snapped from her thoughts by the sound of her phone vibrating against the leather of her sofa as it began to ring. For a moment, she was hopeful that it was Rosa calling. She wasn't quite sure why she expected the detective to suddenly be the type of person who called people, but she definitely noticed the disappointment run through her veins when she instead saw that it was Milton trying to finally get in touch with her.

This time, Gina definitely didn't rush to answer the phone. She left the phone to ring a few times out of sheer bitter angst before she finally answered. "Hello, Milton" she greeted plainly, not looking forward to hearing what her now ex-boyfriend had to say.

" _Hello, Gina. I'm coming over to get all the stuff I've left at yours. And I need to talk to you about something. I'll see you soon."_

With that, the Boyle man simply hung up.

"Rude!" Gina gasped down the phone, but it was too late. Milton had already gone. The assistant huffed and tossed her phone aside, thankful that Iggy had stopped crying and was instead getting drowsy as she lay against her chest. Carefully, Gina got to her feet and shuffled back across the lounge to gently place her daughter back in her crib. She grabbed Iggy's favourite blanket (one that Uncle Jake had bought her when he first met her) and softly laid it over her tired baby. For a few minutes, Gina just stood over Iggy and stroked her forehead comfortingly with her fingertips. It was an action that was always guaranteed to get The Enigma to sleep and tonight it worked as efficiently as ever.

Once she was certain her daughter was asleep, Gina left the side of the crib and climbed the stairs to her bedroom. She still had a specific drawer where Milton kept all of his clothes whenever he stayed the night, so she grabbed the drawer and pulled it out of the cabinet, walking over to the balcony of her bedroom and upturning the drawer, letting all of the clothes tumble to the ground of her lounge. She made her way back downstairs and moodily kicked all of the clothes into a pile ready for her ex-boyfriend to retrieve. Satisfied with her work, she collapsed onto the sofa again and tried to distract herself with reality television.

It was around fifteen minutes later that Milton showed up on her doorstep. Gina simply unlocked the door and let the man stomp inside. His anger and hurt was still evident on his face, but Gina was beyond caring. Neither of them knew what to say to one another, so stood in silence for a moment. Eventually, Gina turned on her heels and walked over to the heap of clothing in the middle of the room, balling it all up in her arms and making her way back over to her ex, dumping the pile in his arms. "You've made your decision. Get out." she instructed him.

This, however, seemed to push Milton over the edge. The curly haired man dropped his clothing at his feet and stepped forward, pointing an accusing finger at Gina. " _I've_ made _my_ decision?" he scoffed in disbelief. As he got too close for comfort, Gina took a step backwards. "You made your decision the moment you decided it was acceptable to go behind my back and cheat on me last night! You never think, do you, Gina? You didn't think about me, you didn't think about Iggy, you didn't think about yourself-"

"How dare you suggest I don't care about my daughter!" the brunette interrupted. She'd raised her voice a little too loud with that, and Iggy began crying loudly from her crib. In her angered frenzy, Gina didn't have time to stop the crying, and instead stormed up to Milton. "How did I put Iggy in any bad position? She doesn't understand what happened last night. It's not like I left her on her own whilst I was out at a party! She had a sitter all night. What did I do wrong? Tell me, Boyle!"

"You cheated on her father! And I can't stay with a woman who cheats on me. So you're breaking her parents up with your carelessness!"

Iggy's crying got louder, but the two grew more and more enraged with one another.

"You were never going to be a proper father to her anyway! You have no rights to her. She didn't come out of _your_ vagina! I can look after her just fine on my own, I never needed you!"

"That's where you're wrong."

Milton's tone changed quite suddenly and this didn't go unnoticed by Gina. She silenced. There was an eerie seriousness to his voice and it filled the new mother with dread. For once, Gina didn't know what to say, so she waited for Milton to continue with the sound of her own heartbeat thudding in her ears.

"I have rights with Iggy. People think that fathers who have children outside of marriage have no rights to their children, but I do. I signed that birth certificate with you, Gina. We have proof of my paternity. That gives me just as much right to look after her as you. And I'll have all of the right to her custody when I prove that you're an _unfit mother_."

* * *

Meanwhile, the meal Natalie had cooked for Rosa had been delicious and prepared with a much sweeter sentiment than the detective had expected. Her girlfriend had cooked her up _Ropa Vieja_ which was a dish native to her parent's home country, consisting of beef cooked with rice, olives and capers. They stayed sat there at the dining table for a while after they'd ate, simply chatting about their work and reminiscing on the food they grew up with.

"Honestly, your _Ropa Vieja_ was so much better than what my mom used to cook. She's a terrible cook, you'd put her to shame" Rosa complimented the blonde woman, their eyes locked as they both took a sip of their beer. Natalie chuckled, flushing slightly at the compliment and reaching a hand across the table. With a warm smile, Rosa extended her arm to slip her hand into her girlfriend's, squeezing it lightly to show her gratitude.

However, their romantic moment was interrupted when Natalie noticed the background music coming from the lounge suddenly change. The rhythmic bass thudding of hip-hop suddenly changed to the whirring guitar of Latin rock, and the psychologist could only shake her head with amusement at her girlfriend mischievously changing the music queue.

"Come on," Natalie started, standing up and keeping her hand in Rosa's, pulling the dark haired woman towards the lounge, "how about we share that nice bottle of Bourbon you brought over the other week?"

* * *

"Get out of my house!" Gina shrieked at Milton, ducking down to pick up a bundle of his shirts and throwing them at him with vigor. The scene in the apartment was horrific. Gina and Milton had resorted to screaming at one another whilst Iggy wailed loudly from her crib.

Gina had never felt so much anger burn through her blood. How dare her ex-boyfriend have the audacity to suggest she was an unfit mother? How dare he even begin to try and take Iggy away from her? She couldn't believe what was happening and wanted nothing more than for Milton to leave and never interfere with her life ever again. She could look after Iggy just fine on her own.

"Go and stop our goddamn baby from crying!" Milton shouted, fearing that all of the noise and crying would get the neighbours' attention. Gina just laughed a laugh of disbelief and grabbed a pair of Milton's jeans from the pile, screwing them up and propelling them at his chest.

"If I'm such an unfit mother and you deserve custody of her, why don't _you_ go and stop her from crying! I bet you don't even know how to. _I_ know her best. _I'm_ her mother!"

"Not for long you're not"

With that, Gina lunged at Milton. She thudded her fists against his chest, screaming at him to get out. Her forceful pushes and shoves eventually caused the man to stagger out of the door and Gina instantly slammed the door behind him, locking all of her locks and turning to press her back against the wood. She stayed there for a long moment, trying to steady her ragged breathing.

But she couldn't collect her breathing, and instead burst into tears. Gina slid down the door and dropped her head into her hands, sobbing quietly into them. She'd never felt so broken in her entire life. She usually made her way through life with her head held high. She rarely let anything affect her and upset her, and when she did she always managed to push through it and not allow her true emotions to show. Gina never wanted to appear weak, but right now she looked like a shell of the Gina Linetti all of her colleagues and friends knew.

After staying slumped on the ground in tears for a while, Gina finally got shakily to her feet and made her way over to the crib. Iggy was still crying, and she knew she couldn't ignore it any longer. She wasn't truly a bad mother, even if Milton was going to try and prove that she was. Gina carefully picked her daughter from her crib and cradled her in her arms, rocking her back and forth soothingly and caressing her thumb over the baby's forehead.

This time, it took quite a long time to get Iggy to calm down. It was understandable, she'd just heard a lot of scary arguing from her parents, but in due course she calmed down again and drifted off to sleep. Gina figured she'd probably just cried so hard that she tired herself out, so she knew she was probably going to be woken up again in the night by Iggy. That was, if she could get any sleep herself after all of this.

It wasn't too late at night, it was just approaching ten o'clock. Usually, the assistant didn't get into bed until around midnight, so she slumped down on the sofa again and decided to try and calm herself down for a few hours. With shaky hands, she reached for her phone. There were no notifications of interest on her lock screen, but when she unlocked her phone, she noticed that she still had her text conversation with Rosa open.

She knew she needed support right now, but also felt very strangely about attempting to call her colleague. Rosa was always very reserved and rarely spoke to people outside of work, unless it was at the bar, so talking to her over the phone would be new and weird for both of them. Yet, something deep inside kept on telling her it was the right thing to do. Did she need to hear someone tell her everything would be okay? Did she need someone to say they'd be there to support her through all of this? Did she simply just need to hear Rosa's voice?

* * *

Back in Natalie's apartment, the speakers around the lounge were blaring with the rough sound of electric guitar and drums. The two women had indulged themselves in perhaps one too many shots of burning whisky and the strong alcohol had affected them almost instantly. It wasn't often that Rosa drank so much that she actually felt _drunk_ , but tonight she was almost at that point. All of her worries and tension had melted away. Her reserved personality was vanishing and she found herself dancing (if it can be called that) around the lounge with Natalie until the two stumbled back and fell onto the sofa, the blonde landing quite suggestively between her legs.

When their eyes met, it was obvious that they were both thinking the same thing. Rosa's eyes were hooded with desire and a similar hunger was mirrored in Natalie's eyes. Without wasting a moment, nimble fingers began working at the latina's belt, unbuckling it in order to gain access to the zipper of her jeans. With her thoughts clouded by desire, Rosa lunged forward and pulled her girlfriend into a searring kiss. Her hands roughly found the hem of Natalie's shirt and she pulled it over her head hastily.

Layer after layer of clothing was shed until the only garments between them were Rosa's bra and Natalie's panties. As hands wandered bodies, Natalie positioned herself between the detective's thighs once more and spread them with a devious grin.

Within moments, Rosa's deep moans mixed in with the blare of music in the room. Her leg was hitched over Natalie's shoulder as her tongue worked at her. Her hands desperately clutched at whatever they could find, like the arm of the sofa, the velvet cushions, long blonde hair. It was a symphony that sounded perfect to Rosa in that moment - her favourite band, the mixed moans of her and her girlfriend, the erotic sound of desperate skin on skin.

All of the sounds in the lounge drowned out one other very important sound: the repetitive ringing of Rosa's phone on the sofa opposite them.


	3. Chapter 3

The next morning, Rosa awoke to the painful throb of a hangover headache. When she blinked her eyes open, the glare of the early-morning sun shining through the window was too much for her and she closed her eyes once more, groaning and burying her face back in Natalie's patchouli scented pillows.

"Get up, sleepy head. You don't want to be late for work, do you?"

Her girlfriend's voice sounded further away than she'd expected, so Rosa forced her eyes open and sat up. She clutched the silk sheets to her naked chest and looked across the room to find Natalie sat at her dresser in her gown, dabbing makeup on her throat. Confused and tired, Rosa squinted her eyes. When the blonde picked up on this, she chuckled lowly and grinned at the Latina woman.

"You must have been pretty rough with me last night, I'm covered in hickies" Natalie teased. Smug, Rosa leaned back on her elbows and kept her eyes locked on the other woman. She knew she could be quite a rough lover but she wasn't ashamed of it, and it turned out the psychologist most definitely wasn't opposed to the Detective's dominant nature. For a moment, Rosa found herself wondering exactly how Gina's night with Nikola had played out. Had Gina had a complete lesbian experience and got Nikola off too, or had it been one-sided? How into it had she been? Suddenly, Rosa stopped her thoughts in their tracks. Why the hell would she even think about Gina's sex life like that?

Regardless, the thought of Gina made Rosa remember work. With a groan, the dark-haired woman threw the duvet off of her body and got to her feet, shamelessly stretching out her bare body. Her head was pounding, but it was nothing a couple of aspirin couldn't fix. She looked around the room and frowned to herself, not finding her clothes anywhere. Her memory of last night was hazy and she only remembered snippets of what happened after their meal. All she kept at Natalie's place were a few pairs of underwear, so she snatched up some of her boyshorts out of the drawer and slipped them on.

"Hey babe, where's all my stuff?" she asked curiously, walking up behind Natalie and draping her arms over the woman's shoulders, pressing her almost-naked form against her back. The blonde woman turned in her chair at that, humming in approval as she caressed up Rosa's smooth waist, meeting the gaze of dark eyes.

"I think we left everything in the lounge last night" her girlfriend grinned up at her and Rosa flashed a sultry smirk as snippets of memories came back to her. She ducked down and stole a chaste kiss from Natalie before slipping out of her arms and making her way through the apartment to the lounge, where she did indeed find a trail of clothes.

The Latina grabbed her black jeans from the ground and pulled them up her legs, standing topless in the middle of the room as she zipped them up and buckled her belt. At first, she struggled to locate her shirt and bra, but she eventually found them thrown over the arm of the second sofa, on top of her jacket. After getting her bra on and slinging her shirt over her shoulder, Rosa found her phone. She frowned. She'd gone an awful long time without checking it and was almost hesitant to unlock it, but when she did, she was met with a string of missed calls.

"Fuck!" Rosa cursed. Gina had never spontaneously called Rosa before last night, but right now, the Detective was looking at '8 missed calls' from the Assistant. She quickly scrolled through her other notifications to find that Gina had text her too - one text that read:

 _Everything is a fucking mess Rosa. Milton is going to try and take Iggy away from me. Can I borrow your axe or something? lol_

Even though Gina had sent her characteristic acronyms and a string of emojis after her message, Rosa instantly knew how serious the situation was. She'd promised her friend that she'd be there for her whenever she needed it, but last night she had been too busy with her girlfriend's head between her legs to even pay attention to her phone. There was an uncomfortable feeling in the pit of Rosa's stomach, twisting and churning her gut, making her nauseous. What was this she was feeling? Was this guilt? Maybe she was just hungry...

With a haste she rarely had with texting, Rosa tapped out a quick reply on the screen. When Natalie called through from the bedroom to ask if she was alright, Rosa simply called back that she was, and was just checking messages 'from work'. Eventually, she figured she had an appropriate response to Gina, and sent back:

 _Look, Gina, I'm so sorry I didn't see this last night. Milton is a stinking pile of horse shit and we won't let him take Iggy away from you. If your sitter is already there, come meet me for coffee before work?_

Rosa slipped her phone into her back pocket and headed back into Natalie's bedroom, where she stole some deodorant before pulling her shirt over her head. To her relief, she felt her phone buzz rather soon after and she snatched her phone quickly to read the reply. Gina had agreed to meet her for coffee before work. With that, Rosa quickly made excuses.

"I'm going to have to dash, I need to get breakfast on the way to work" she lied. Truthfully, the Latina wasn't entirely sure why she was lying about this. Deep down, perhaps she felt rude blowing off her girlfriend to meet her colleague for coffee? Regardless, she stood by her alibi.

"You could have had breakfast here!" Natalie pouted, but Rosa could tell the psychologist wasn't truly upset. She approached the other woman and placed a hand gently on her jaw.

"I promised Jake I'd grab him his favourite on the way in, and I'm already on track to be late if I stop on the way. But I had a really wonderful time last night."

With a slightly disheartened but supportive smile, Natalie gave an understanding nod and pulled Rosa close for a goodbye kiss, which Rosa returned gently before stepping back. She headed out of the bedroom and grabbed her jacket from the couch, shrugging it on and slipping into her boots before snatching her motorcycle helmet from the cabinet by the door.

"I'll let you know when I'm free next, babe. I'll take you out somewhere nice." Rosa called to her girlfriend before slipping out of the apartment. As she jogged down the stairs, she text Gina and time and a place. Once she was outside, she slipped her helmet on and mounted her bike, wasting no time before revving her engine and pulling off onto the streets of Brooklyn.

* * *

After spending her night curled up on the sofa with glass after glass of wine, Gina felt slightly more _herself_ this morning. It wasn't that she needed to drink her problems away to feel better, just that her emotional night had drained her and now she had no more energy for being sad or crying.

When her babysitter had showed up at her door this morning, the young woman would have had no idea that Gina had spent her evening in tears. She was her usual, glowing self. Soon after telling the sitter what she wanted her to do with Iggy today, the brunette left briskly. Her rough encounter with Milton the night before had made her crave normal human contact, so she was oddly excited to see Rosa this morning.

Truthfully, Gina had been shocked to receive such a sentimental text from the Detective this morning. Rosa wasn't exactly famous for having a way with empathetic words, but the text she'd gotten only a few minutes ago had made her feel a lot better already. Gina quickly got into her car and pulled out of the parking lot, speeding her way to the little coffee shop near Shaw's Bar. During the drive, she distracted herself by singing along shamelessly to Beyoncé songs. By the time she parked up at the coffee joint, she was feeling quite untouchable.

Naturally, Gina was five minutes late. She'd spotted Rosa's bike parked right outside the café, so she confidently walked in and looked around the for the dark haired woman. She found Rosa sat in one of the booths by the window, lounged back casually with her hands wrapped around a mug of steaming tea. There was a cream-topped latte on the table opposite her, and Gina smiled a little to herself as she walked up to the booth and slipped into the seat. Rosa was staring out of the window and seemed deep in thought, so the Assistant smirked to herself.

"Oh, how shameful. Wearing the same outfit as yesterday, Diaz?" Gina teased to get Rosa's attention. It worked, and the Latina looked wide-eyed at Gina before relaxing when she realised it was only her colleague. She glanced down at her own attire and rolled her eyes, shrugging her shoulder dismissively.

"I slept at my girlfriend's place last night" she admitted.

With that, Gina put the pieces of the puzzle together. It was no wonder that Rosa hadn't answered her phone last night. It was only ten-thirty when she had began to call her friend - a time at which Rosa Diaz was most definitely still awake. But of course the other woman wouldn't be able to answer her phone when she was busy _having sex._

Gina made a shameless sound of realisation and Rosa let out a little huff as she realised her friend had worked out why she missed eight consecutive calls last night. She averted her eyes guiltily, but Gina simply reached out and jabbed at Rosa's arm playfully.

"Get it, girl!" she exclaimed and a smile finally broke out on Rosa's face. After a short pause to sip at her coffee, Gina broke the silence once more. "Thanks for the coffee, by the way. I really needed to get out the apartment this morning."

Even though this had been her idea, the dark-haired woman wasn't quite sure what to say in this situation. She was glad she'd been able to help Gina get out, but didn't know what to do next. Eventually, she managed to purse her lips hesitantly before asking: "So, what the heck happened last night?"

From there, Gina went on to explain the entire ordeal. She explained how she'd been having a perfectly peaceful night until Milton decided he was coming over to 'get his stuff'. Gina made a point of exaggerating how spitefully she'd crumpled and balled up her ex-boyfriend's clothes as she found them, before continuing to the more important matters. Rosa was shocked to hear how bluntly Milton had expressed that he wanted custody of Iggy and she let out a snort of disbelief when Gina quoted his exact words.

Imitating his voice in a quite amusing manner, Gina reenacted last night: "-and then he said, _'not for long you're not!'_ Can you believe?"

Rosa's fist came slamming onto the wooden table, startling the Assistant, who had been quite engrossed in retelling her story.

"I'll tear that bastard's head off if I ever see him again!" she snarled.

It was oddly touching for Gina to see Rosa get so protective over her and she smiled a little, glancing down into her steaming mug to hide it. Other people would find Rosa's brutality to be quite disturbing, but the brunette knew it was just her quirky way of showing she cared.

"Believe me, I tried to tear his head off. Hopefully I've at least left him with a few bruises" Gina huffed, leaning back in her seat now that her dramatic storytelling was over. There was a proud look on Rosa's face when she realised Gina had gotten violent with Milton, but the pride soon diminished into concern and she furrowed her scarred brows in thought.

"So, what are you going to do from here?" she enquired, finishing off the last bit of her tea.

Gina let out a dramatic sigh and raised one of her shoulders in a helpless shrug. "I suppose I just wait and see if Milton actually acts on this. If I get the dreaded letter of doom in the mail, I'll let you know."

The Latina nodded. There wasn't really anything else Gina could do besides wait. She really hoped that Milton wouldn't actually have the balls to go through with this, but after the Assistant had explained how certain the Boyle man had been last night, she had an awful feeling that he would. Speaking of Boyle men, Rosa met Gina's eyes again.

"Are you going to tell Charles what's going on? Maybe he can help out?"

" _Charles_?" Gina exclaimed, looking deflated from the biker's suggestion, "That man is a little spineless weed. If I asked him to confront Milton it would be all ' _You deserve that baby, cousin Milton. Children are wonderful things. I love you, cousin Milton_.' What use is that? I think he's better off not knowing. Besides, telling him would mean talking to him and…"

The brunette shuddered at the thought of talking to the short man and Rosa let out a snort of amusement. Gina was right - Charles would be utterly useless in this situation.

Once Gina had finished her drink, the two women got up to leave the coffee shop. They were due at work in ten minutes, so had to rush to their vehicles to get there on time.

* * *

By the time Gina had pulled into her designated parking slot, Rosa was already getting off of her bike. With an unexplained curiosity, Gina watched as the Latina kicked the bike stand out effortlessly and unmounted, pulling her helmet off too. Rosa shook her head around a little when she was free from the confinement of the helmet and her luscious dark locks bounced back into their usual position. Rosa riding a motorcycle was hot. She could totally see why so many men (and women) were into her.

Snapping back to reality, Gina got out of the car. She grabbed her bag and closed the door behind her, walking across to the entrance to the 99th Precinct. Naturally, Rosa noticed that Gina had arrived too from the echoing sound of her heels clip-clopping across the concrete. The months were getting warmer again now, and Gina was wearing a smart blouse and a pencil skirt to accommodate for that. She definitely fit the stereotype of an 'Assistant' today. The Detective caught up with her colleague and they silently called for the elevator together.

When they stepped inside, Gina couldn't help but notice that Rosa clicked the button for the second floor today instead of the fourth floor. She frowned to herself.

"Working with the DEA today?" she asked casually.

Rosa hummed in confirmation. "There's been an increase in 'party drugs' around Brooklyn's youth lately. Ecstasy, coke, pot. The statistics have gone up so quickly it means there must be a new supplier in the borough. We need to start investigations to track them down."

Gina felt a slight pang of sadness inside her chest at that. Since all of this had began happening with Milton, Rosa had been the person who was there for her. So, she felt quite comforted by the taller woman's presence. Work wouldn't be the same today without Rosa sat across the bullpen, making darkly sarcastic remarks at all of her other annoying colleagues.

When the elevator stopped at the second floor, Rosa went to step out. Just before she did, however, she turned around to Gina again. "I'll come up to the 4th floor for lunch. I might be able to stay up there this afternoon anyway, depending on how far we get this morning. See you later."

Before Gina could even reply, Rosa had walked out into the Drug Enforcement Administration corridor and vanished from sight. Although, the brunette was a little relieved to know Rosa might be back upstairs with her later, so she managed to keep a smile on her face as she walked into the nine-nine, seeing all of her colleagues.

"Morning, losers!" she greeted as she walked straight across to her desk, plopping her bag down on her table and beginning to get to work straight away.

Charles and Amy shared a glance across the room. The transformation in Gina since yesterday was incredible.

* * *

Gina's day had been rather mediocre. She'd made a few important calls for Holt but had mostly spent her time replying to various emails. There hadn't been much fun drama among her colleagues this morning, either. She hadn't had many opportunities to verbally tear anyone to shreds and the highlight of her social dominance this morning had been resolving a domestic argument between Jake and Amy about whether Jake was too old to eat Poptarts for breakfast _and_ as a lunchtime snack in the same day.

So, when the _ding_ of the elevator sounded at around 13:00, Gina glanced up in excitement. To her relief, Rosa stepped out into the Precinct clad in her NYPD jacket and sunglasses.

"Rosa, good to see you finally!" Amy had greeted, but Rosa walked straight past her desk in the direction of Holt's office, only calling ' _wish I could say the same about you_ ' back to Amy on her way.

Rosa did stop to talk to Gina, however. She stood in front of the shorter woman's desk and took her sunglasses off, hanging them off of the neck of her t-shirt for safekeeping. "Spent the morning stuck in the car next to Detective Jameson. Have I ever told you how bad that guy's breath is? He likes to talk to himself when he's working cases, and with every little word he whispers the car fills up like a gas chamber."

Rosa grimaced and looked off into the distance as she remembered how awful the last few hours had been, before finally locking eyes with Gina again. "I just need to fill Holt in on a few things them I'm grabbing lunch, if you want to join me?"

Rosa's little vent about Detective Jameson had made Gina smile fondly to herself and she found herself nodding absent-mindedly to the Detective's invitation. With that, Rosa headed into the Captain's office. Gina decided that today felt like a pizza day, so she stood up from her chair and grabbed her jacket, quickly popping out to the diner across the street for a good, hot slice of margherita to take away.

* * *

Gina's afternoon had been far more enjoyable than her morning. Rosa was definitely her favourite person to have lunch with. There was no cringe-inducing small talk, only the occasional snarky or bitchy remark that caused enough laughter to fill the silences in between. They always bitched about their colleagues together and today the topic of ridicule had been Amy's awful dark-green pant suit.

After they'd ate, Gina kicked back to scroll through Twitter for a little while whilst Rosa did a few yoga exercises to 'diffuse her hatred for Detective Jameson'. No matter how many times Gina insisted meditation would work better for that, Rosa continued to dissolve her anger with a classic Cobra Pose.

After lunch, the two only had desk-based work for the rest of the day. Rosa's presence in the Precinct made everything a lot more enjoyable, though. It was fun to have everyone's faults pointed out to her so that she could enjoy their failure. In fact, she didn't find herself reflecting on her own issues much during the afternoon, and she figured it was thanks to the constant supply of dark, hateful humour coming from the other side of the room.

When the end of their shift neared, Rosa had walked back over to Gina's desk. She placed a file down that she needed Holt to sign, but she didn't leave once she'd given it to the Assistant. Instead, she cleared her throat to get Gina's attention.

"Come to Shaw's with me tonight. You had a shitty night last night, don't have another one."

As always with Rosa Diaz, the invite had sounded more like a command than anything else. Nonetheless, Gina had jumped at the opportunity and agreed to let the Detective take her to the bar after they both finished this evening. After a quick phone call had agreed to have Iggy for the night, so she rushed through her last few tasks so that she could leave early. Rosa had very little work left to do as well, so, come 20:00 the two women were ready to leave.

"Let me drive us there. You need a drink tonight. I'll make sure you get home safe, too." Rosa had said as she approached Gina's desk again, ready to leave. She placed a spare motorcycle helmet in front of her friend and smiled mischievously. The brunette looked up at Rosa with fearful eyes, but reached out to take the helmet anyway. She'd rode on the back of Rosa's bike a few times before, and whilst she knew the other woman was an expert in driving the two-wheeled deathtraps, she always felt scared for her life whenever she was on one.

Despite this, Gina agreed. She did feel like she needed a stiff drink tonight, even though she had drank consecutively for the last two nights beforehand. The Assistant figured it was acceptable, given her current situation. So, she snatched up the motorcycle helmet and followed Rosa out of the Precinct with a smirk.

"Later, suckers!" Gina called out to her other colleagues as she stepped into the elevator with Rosa, the doors closing behind them.

Again, Amy and Charles exchanged very confused looks with one another.

* * *

Just like Amy Santiago, Gina's personality changed with every drink. Right now, Rosa sat at the bar besides one-drink Gina, who was a party girl. She was definitely Rosa's least favourite Gina-derivative, but thankfully she was the one who was gone the soonest.

"Hey!" the brunette called across to the bartender, waving her hand in the air obnoxiously. Rosa rolled her eyes and took a swig of her beer, looking elsewhere as the employee made his way over to them. "I'll take another G&T, pretty boy. I'm here to get _turnt up!"_

"-Be quick with it" Rosa interrupted, "She'll finally calm down once she's drank it."

The confused looking young man nodded, scurrying away to get the beverage for Gina who let out a groan of annoyance and placed her hand on Rosa's shoulder.

"Why are you such a killjoy? Have another drink, Diaz. I like the way three-drink Rosa loosens up a bit."

"Can't" Rosa deadpanned back, "I promised I'd get you home safe, meaning I'm driving you home, meaning this beer is lasting all night for me."

Giving Rosa an exaggerated thumbs down followed by an immature raspberry, Gina's drink was finally placed in front of her. She drank it up greedily and in the blink of an eye, the glass was already empty. It was obvious that Gina needed a night out, but Rosa was surprised by just how little the Assistant was pacing herself.

In a few minutes time, party-girl Gina would be replaced by brutally honest Gina. Of course, Gina was no stranger to speaking her mind, but after two strong drinks, she spoke her mind on topics she usually kept to herself. Rosa was admittedly quite excited to hear what two-drink Gina had to say tonight. The woman had been through quite a few new life experiences recently and whilst it was strange that she was so interested, Rosa did want to know how it had gone down.

Rosa was snapped from her thoughts by Gina swiftly hopping off the bar stool. "I'm going to the bathroom!" she told the Detective before sauntering off through the bar. As Rosa watched her leave, she noticed that a random, bearded man stood around the pool table had his eyes locked on her. Grimacing at the offputting gaze, the Latina turned back around and took another generous swig of her beer. She did wish she could drink more tonight, but perhaps she needed to be careful after how much she drank last night.

By the time Gina got back, Rosa had accidentally drank her entire beer. She picked at the paper label on the bottle and smiled a little when her friend sat down besides her again.

"There's a really disgusting greasy guy looking at you. But I suppose he's your type."

Oh yeah, two-drink Gina was here.

"The guy playing pool? Fuck, Gina, he's disgusting. Besides, it's not like I'm looking for someone to date right now. I'm in a relationship."

Surprisingly, the brunette rolled her eyes. "Oh yeah, I keep forgetting. After Adrian, I presume you're single unless you're making out with someone in the work's break room in front of everyone. He was the _worst_. I hope you have a better taste in women than men."

Unapologetically, Rosa threw a soft punch at Gina's shoulder.

"I have an amazing taste in women" the Detective defended herself. Gina raised a curious eyebrow and leaned closer to Rosa, resting her chin on her hand as she did so.

"Oh yeah? Prove it. Show me a picture of this woman. If you don't, I'll presume she's the female version of Adrian Pimento."

Rosa let out a groan of frustration, but whipped her phone out nonetheless. She knew two-drink Gina wouldn't back down, so didn't bother trying to resist. Half-heartedly, Rosa scrolled through her image gallery on her phone. To her surprise, her and Natalie must have taken some photos last night that she didn't remember. Some of them weren't exactly appropriate to show her workmate, and she was thankful that Gina was too distracted eyeing the barman to notice. There were some rather cute, innocent photos of the two of them though. So, Rosa decides to show Gina a photo of her and her girlfriend curled up together on the sofa, grinning at the camera.

"Aw!" the tipsy woman gasped, "I love bi Rosa, you look so happy! And I'll admit, your girlfriend is _hot._ She's blonde? Nikola was blonde."

Rosa nearly coughed in surprise when the name _Nikola_ came out of Gina's mouth, but she managed to stop herself before she made it obvious that she was shocked. Of course, the Assistant had no idea that the other woman knew exactly who she had slept with at Linda's bachelorette party, so Rosa had to fake her surprise.

"Nikola? Who's that? Is she the woman you…"

"Yeah, her," Gina replied almost instantly, seemingly completely unashamed of everything, "she was _hot_ too. Something about her personality just captivated me, you know? I imagine it's similar to how people feel when they see me dance. I couldn't take my eyes off her. She was really charming and chivalrous and _badass._ She almost started a fight with this gross guy who got too handsy with me. After she stood up for me like that… I don't know, I just knew I wanted to take her home."

Right now, Rosa was thankful that she'd mastered a flawless pokerface. Inside, this new information made her want to grin with pride. Something about the fact that her co-worker had this bisexuality inside of her made Rosa feel less out of place and more _normal,_ and it was a really nice feeling. Her stolid expression displayed none of that, though, and she simply raised a scarred eyebrow.

"What was it like?" Rosa finally dared to ask, pushing the boundaries of two-drinks Gina, "I mean, did you like it? Being with a woman?"

"Oh, girl!" Gina started, and the Latina was instantly taken aback by the passion Gina had for whatever she was about to say. "It was a-ma-zing! I didn't know anyone could even make me feel like _that._ Guys seriously need to up their game, because Gina Linetti has high expectations now. I came like _five_ times."

If Rosa still had her beer, she'd have just spat it out in shock. Apparently Gin made two-drink Gina more honest than she had ever expected. She had no idea how to respond to that. There were hundreds of questions going around her mind, but she had the social skills required to bring up none of them.

"Five times is nothing."

 _Why had she chose to say that, of all things?_ Rosa mentally kicked herself for that, and awkwardly glanced at Gina in time to notice the eyebrow raise of surprise.

"Damn Diaz… that girlfriend of yours must be a lucky woman"

With that, Rosa smacked loudly on the bar counter. The barman looked at the leather-clad woman with wide eyes, before Rosa practically barked at him to get another drink for Gina. She couldn't cope with two-drink Gina anymore, it was time for three-drink Gina.

* * *

Three-drink Gina was an interesting creature. She definitely wasn't what you'd expect. Astonishingly enough, three-drink Gina was an _introvert_. Once the burning Gin had been downed, the brunette was leaning over Rosa a little. Her one arm was hooked needily through Rosa's whilst the other propped her phone up in front of her face, rhythmically scrolling through Twitter. The physical contact made the Detective purse her lips with slight annoyance, but she put up with it anyway, for Gina's sake.

"Rosa!" Gina shouted over the music of the bar. The dark-haired woman glanced across at her colleague, expecting another funny video of a child falling over, or another photo of 'Nature's Greatest Predator' looking magnificent. What she got, however, was simply a pout from Gina. "Can we go home? I miss my blankets."

It was strange to hear Gina ask so nicely for something, so Rosa simply shrugged and gave a blasé 'sure' in response. She was convinced there was an underlying reason for why Gina wanted to go home, but regardless, the Latina got to her feet. It was probably best to get Gina home now anyway - four-drink Gina might have the tendency to fall off the back of her bike.

"Oh and also, Rosa, the creepy bearded guy just took a photo of your butt…"


	4. Chapter 4

Gina later regretted telling Rosa that the scruffy middle-aged man playing pool had taken a photo of her butt, because it then took even longer for them to leave the bar. Rosa had characteristically snapped at the man, weilding a pool cue and threatening to do rather vile things with it if the man didn't delete the picture. So, once the picture was deleted, the two women finally left.

The drive back to Gina's apartment was refreshing for Rosa. She loved driving through Brooklyn at night; everything looked much prettier lit up by the multicoloured city lights and the quietness of the streets only made the drive more pleasing. Gina, on the other hand, usually hated riding on the back of motorcycles. But for some reason, this time seemed different. Her arms were tangled tight around the Latina's toned abdomen and no matter how quickly the bike tore through the streets, she never once feared she would fall off. Rosa was amazingly good at driving the steel death-trap, and the alcohol in her system made Gina feel even more invincible.

There were a few bumpy moments during the drive back, though. At one point, a car carelessly sped across a red light at a crossroad, causing Rosa to swerve and slam on the breaks. She felt Gina's fingers grasp her desperately at that - balling her t-shirt up in her palms and raking her nails over tight skin in the process. Even though they'd just avoided a potentially critical car accident, Rosa felt something strange ignite inside of her at the feeling of Gina's nails scratching over her skin. It confused her for a moment and she couldn't quite work out why she suddenly felt a familiar sensation burn in her loins. Eventually, as she continued down the dark Brooklyn streets, Rosa presumed it was because she had felt Natalie's nails raking all over her skin in a similar manner last night. Surely the sensation just reminded her of that?

Thankfully, the mild arousal had vanished by the time the two women pulled up outside Gina's apartment. The shorter woman hopped off the back of the bike and wasted no time in removing her helmet, holding it beneath her arm. Rosa couldn't help but smile fondly at how out of place the helmet looked beneath Gina's arm as she too unmounted the bike and kicked the stand out.

"That was _dope!_ " Gina exclaimed. When Rosa took her helmet off too, Gina was met with a quizzically raised eyebrow, "The way you swerved out of the way of that car like _whooosh_ and slammed on the breaks like _bam_! We should do that again!"

Rosa felt like she'd cracked The Da Vinci Code. It seemed that if you put three-drink Gina on the back of a motorcycle and take her for a life-threatening ride, she converts back to one-drink Gina. _Fascinating._ With an amused chuckle, Rosa placed her hand on the small of Gina's back and guided her towards the entrance to her apartment block. She walked the other woman up the stairs but stopped at the door, which caused Gina to eye her with confusion.

"Whatcha doing, silly? You're coming in with me. You haven't been able to have more than one beer all night and I have a bottle of _single barrel Kentucky straight bourbon_ I know you'd love."

There were two things Rosa was passionate about in life, and those were weapons and whiskey. Santiago could talk for hours about binders, Peralta could go on forever about Die Hard, Boyle could gush about food non-stop and Jeffords could show you videos of his little girls until your eyes came out, but Rosa could talk forever about weapons or whiskey. So, the words _single barrel Kentucky straight bourbon_ worked like pure seduction to her. Wordlessly, Rosa opened the door to the apartment block and stepped inside before Gina, heading up to her where she knew the other woman's apartment was. Gina smirked triumphantly.

Rosa was surprised that she still remembered which apartment belonged to Gina. It had been quite some time since she was last at the other woman's place, but she managed to instinctively lead herself to right outside of Gina's door. She was even a few paces in front of Gina, who chuckled when she caught up.

"Eager, are we?" Gina quipped and Rosa glanced across at her, lips pursed defensively.

"You mentioned whiskey. You know that shit's my kryptonite" Rosa shot back, nodding impatiently to the closed door in front of them.

"Damn Rosa, you a thirsty bitch" Gina remarked before finally unlocking the door, allowing the two women to step inside. Nothing much had changed in the apartment since the last time Rosa had came by. The only new additions were the scattered baby items everywhere - bottles, toys and the crib in the corner of the room. Despite that, the same jasmine fragrance from Gina's favourite incense filled the air and the lighting was as calm and mellow as ever.

As the brunette made her way straight through to the kitchen to retrieve the promised whiskey, Rosa sauntered around the room. She made her way to the bookshelf and allowed her fingers to curiously trace over some of the newer photos framed there. There were obviously dozens of photos of Iggy, right from her first few weeks of life up to her current cheeky one-year-old self. A particular photo of Gina holding Iggy (who was smiling quite dopily) caught Rosa's attention and the Detective picked the frame up, mirroring a proud smile. It hurt her to think that Milton had the nerve to claim Gina was a bad mother when it was so blatantly obvious how much she loved her daughter.

"Come on Diaz, look at this beauty. Try to keep it in your panties when you see this."

Rosa was snapped back to reality by Gina calling her over from the kitchen. She carefully placed the frame back down on the shelf and turned on her heels to make her way over to Gina. Her eyes almost bulged when she saw the bottle the Assistant had placed on the counter. Rosa picked it up in awe and gasped.

"Oh, _dude_!" she exclaimed, "A twenty year old single malt? How the heck did you get this? This is like, crazy expensive."

There was a mischievous glint in Gina's eyes as she reached into the cupboard for a tumbler glass, holding it out to the taller woman.

"People buy expensive gifts for brides-to-be. So, I may or may not have stole it from Linda's bachelorette party…"

Usually, Rosa would disapprove of Gina's thieving antics. But they weren't at work and she'd stole something that Rosa was dying to taste, so she offhandedly pulled the wooden cork out of the bottle and brought it to her nose, taking a curious sniff of the spicy liqueur. It smelled divine, so the Detective reached out and poured the dark brown liquid into the glass in Gina's hand. Placing the bottle back down, she took the glass and raised it to her lips, allowing herself a sip of the rich liquid. Unlike cheaper whiskeys, this didn't burn. It just had a warm, oaky taste that elicited a low moan of approval from Rosa's throat.

"Oh wow, take it you like it then?" Gina asked, breaking the silence between them.

Rosa had been so caught up in the taste of the aged whiskey that she'd barely noticed the sound that escaped from her, but she soon realised what had happened from the way Gina looked at her. The shorter woman looked at her with an entertained expression, though Rosa was almost certain there was something else behind her bright blue eyes. It almost looked like desire. Gina's pupils were slightly blown out and she'd caught her lip between her teeth. _Perhaps her pupils had just changed because of the low lighting, though?_ Rosa convinced herself that there must be another explanation and cleared her throat awkwardly.

"It's a really good bourbon. Like, _really_ good. I'm glad you stole it" Rosa smirked, topping up her glass and stepping over to the fridge to dispense a single cube of ice into her drink. The same smirk was still on her lips when she turned back to Gina and allowed their gaze to lock again. "Come on Linetti, the drive here sobered you up. You have some catching up to do."

Gina seemed personally offended at the challenge, but ducked down to her liqueur draw regardless and pulled out a bottle of tequila. Rosa was impressed by the bold choice, but simply stood with her arms crossed and her tumbler in hand, swirling the liquid lightly as she watched Gina unscrew the cap and take a swig straight from the bottle like a college kid.

"Wow, you're a real classy drinker" Rosa deadpanned and Gina only giggled, moving across the room and grabbing Rosa by the arm, tugging her towards the lounge. The Latina managed to desperately grab the bottle of bourbon before she was escorted out, and soon found herself sat on Gina's couch with her, surrounded by jazzy pillows and comfortable blankets. It was probably a good idea that Gina was drinking straight from the bottle. Perhaps that way she would avoid two-drink Gina and three-drink Gina entirely, because they weren't exactly the easiest to cope with. Rosa could only hope.

* * *

Sadly, Rosa had been wrong. After a few swigs of tequila from the bottle, Gina was once again in her brutally honest mindset. This time, however, Rosa could take a gulp of delicious whiskey whenever Gina said something far too honest for her to handle. And Gina was saying a lot of things that were too much for Rosa to handle, so Rosa was beginning to feel a little tipsy herself.

"So what was it like for you, the first time you slept with a woman? 'Cause I feel like I can _never_ go back to men after that, holy shit!"

Rosa had been swallowing a sip of bourbon when Gina asked that, and she momentarily felt the hot liquid hitch in her throat with surprise. For a second the Latina felt herself nearly choke. She'd always imagined herself coming to her demise in a really memorable way, like sacrificing her life for the Nine-Nine or losing an epic sword fight against a gang of drug smugglers. She definitely didn't expect to die from choking on her friend's sofa at her highly inappropriate questions, which was why she was thankful that she managed to swallow and compose herself. Nothing could ever prepare her for how sudden and explicit Gina's questions could be, especially when the other woman was drinking.

Sober Rosa wouldn't even dream of answering the question. She'd yell at Gina for trying to invade her privacy and for asking totally inappropriate, personal questions. Shockingly, however, tipsy Rosa didn't mind.

"Oh, dude," the Detective started nostalgically, reaching out and placing her hand on Gina's forearm, "I felt the same for a while. It was my first year at the Police Academy. I'd known about being bi for ages, but I'd never got the confidence to come onto a woman. I guess the Catholic school made me feel like I couldn't, but I finally came out of my shell in the Academy. There was this girl in the same year as me and Jake. She was _thick_. Me and Jake had a bet to see who could get her on a date first. Jake didn't know I was bi, he just thought I was trying to sabotage him. Needless to say, I won the bet. And ended up sleeping with her after I took her to the movies. After her, I don't think I slept with a man for years. Jake doesn't know that I slept with her and he kept trying to hook me up with his guy friends in the Academy for ages, but I always had secret girlfriends. It was quite funny now I look back on it."

Apparently tipsy Rosa also accumulated the skill of talking in paragraphs for once, too.

"Damn, young Rosa was a _player_!" Gina chortled. The brunette appeared shocked - as though she'd just learned one of the most valuable pieces of information that anyone had ever known about Rosa Diaz. The short explanation of what Rosa was like in the Police Academy had given the Assistant a rather vivid image of the Latina being a complete heartthrob back then. "I bet you were like the female Danny Zuko. Leather jackets and all. Did you ever smoke?"

At this point, Gina wasn't entirely aware that some of her wandering thoughts were escaping her lips. The _Grease_ reference had Rosa chuckling, though, and she shook her head with amusement before taking another swig of whiskey.

"I was far from the female Danny Zuko. Singing and dancing is for nerds"

Of course, the statement was intended to annoy Gina, who believed she was the greatest dancer ever bestowed to the planet. The diva-like woman gasped with shock and shoved at Rosa's shoulders, but the stronger woman barely moved at the impact. The two women just ended up laughing besides one another instead.

When the drunken chuckling died down, Rosa poured herself another glass of whiskey. She was far too comfortable on Gina's sofa to go and get herself some ice, and far too tipsy to maintain her flawless whiskey etiquette. With Gina's comment on her mind, she shrugged to herself absently.

"I actually did smoke back then, though. I think every Ballet Dancer ends up smoking to deal with all the stress. I quit in the second year of the Academy though. My lung capacity was _awful_. I failed so many physicals."

Gina struggled to imagine Rosa ever being unfit. Ever since she'd known the other woman, she'd been in awe of her body and strength. Truthfully, Gina had felt intimidated by Rosa's attractiveness when they were first introduced. The Assistant was usually extremely confident about her appearance (all men were at least 30% attracted to her), but Rosa had been the only person to make her feel slightly inadequate.

"Didn't we first meet in your second year at the Academy?" Gina enquired, beginning to have slight flashbacks to when they first were introduced. Rosa only smirked knowingly, remembering that particular house party.

* * *

 _One of the things Rosa had learned very quickly at the Police Academy was that cops liked to party hard. When she was younger, the Latina was far more confident and carefree, so she most definitely wasn't opposed to that._

 _On the night that she first met Gina Linetti, one of the most popular boys in the year was having a house party at his new shared digs. Rosa and Jake had both been invited, and because the house was humungous to a Brooklyn post-teen, they'd been told they could bring along a few of their friends too. So, Jake thought it was finally time to bring Gina along to meet his Academy friends._

 _Having already dropped out of college at this point, Gina wasn't used to big house parties. When her cab pulled up outside of the address Jake had given her, the brunette had no idea what to expect. As soon as she stepped out of the car, the booming music and bass was all she could feel vibrating through her veins. She straightened out her tight, strapless dress and approached the house, almost hesitantly pushing the door open. The music got louder and youngsters were already everywhere in the hallway. Some people were just talking and drinking, but others were already clearly drunk or making out against the walls. Not seeing Jake anywhere in the hall, Gina instantly moved through to the lounge. It seemed that the lounge was being used as a temporary dance floor, as the majority of people were crowded into the small space dancing to the pounding music. That's when she noticed Jake. And Rosa._

 _Jake had never been a good dancer. Sure, he'd taken tap classes, but he stuck out like a sore thumb when he tried to blend in with any kind of modern dancing. The young man just jerked around a lot with his dopey grin plastered on his face, which was why Gina managed to find him in the crowd so quickly. What surprised her, though, was the girl Jake was dancing with. As heterosexual as she was, Gina felt her breath hitch when she first laid eyes on the dancing Latina._

 _Rosa was already pretty drunk when Gina laid eyes on her. She had her cup of whiskey and cola in one hand with her other hand delved into her messy dark hair as her body swayed perfectly in time to the rhythmic bass that shook the very foundations of the house. She was clad in tight black jeans and a completely sleeveless grey t-shirt that sported some type of gothic image. The t-shirt exposed the girl's perfectly toned arms and there was an ever-so-slight sheen of sweat on her skin. As Gina trailed her eyes up to try and memorise the mysterious girl's face, she noticed her eyes were closed and her lips slightly parted - utterly lost in the music as she moved in an intoxicating manner._

 _That was, until Jake noticed Gina. The goofy boy grabbed Rosa by her arm and snapped her instantly out of her drunken transe, pulling her across to the other side of the room to greet Gina. He enveloped her in a tight embrace, during which Gina couldn't help but notice how much he reeked of alcohol._

 _"Gina!" he blurted out happily as he pulled back, grinning, "this is my other best friend, Rosa! Rosa, this is Gina. We grew up together!"_

 _Gina almost felt belittled under the piercing gaze of Rosa's dark brown orbs, but she simply grinned at the woman and nodded. Rosa mirrored this with a twisted, almost mischievous grin of her own. With one smooth movement, she extended her red party cup out to Gina for the brunette to take._

 _"You look like you could use a drink. Bottoms up."_

 _Gina took the drink without thinking twice and downed the liquid desperately, hoping to catch up with how drunk Jake and his friends already seemed. The liquid burned her throat, but she felt obliged to finish Rosa's drink being as the girl had been nice enough to give it to her._

 _There was only one catch._

 _She hated whiskey._

* * *

"That was a damn good party" Rosa commented. She remembered the night surprisingly well to say how drunk she'd gotten. Her younger self was so much more outgoing compared to how reserved she was nowadays and she still wasn't quite sure what had changed over the years. "I thought you were some kind of shy kid when I first met you. I knew how wrong I'd been to think that as soon as you'd had a few drinks, though. You nearly got into a fight with that first year girl over that gross blonde guy. Chad? Was that his name? He was a douche, either way."

The two laughed fondly as they remembered how stupid their younger selves had been. It was funny for Gina to think that they'd first met as reckless kids who drank way too much at house parties and now they were in their early thirties, sat on her sofa having a calm, drunken night in instead.

In homage to their first meeting, the two women continued drinking until the early hours of the morning. They teased one another about embarrassing things they'd done when they were younger, jokingly pissed one another off and made up by listening to the awful old house music they'd listened to 'back in the day'. Even though they stayed in the comfort of Gina's apartment, the night quickly became a blur and Rosa eventually sank back into the warmth of the brunette's sofa, allowing her eyes to fall shut.

* * *

For the second day in a row, Rosa was woken up by a dull headache pounding around her skull. She carefully blinked her eyes open. The light around Gina's apartment was way too bright for her sore eyes and she soon became aware of aching throughout her entire body too. Her limbs were twisted in quite an uncomfortable manner on the sofa and she forced herself to muster up the strength to move and sit up slowly, moving her stiff muscles out of their agonising positions.

The Latina swung her legs off the edge of the sofa and sat there, running her fingers through her knotted hair. She noticed she had only one boot on and the other was missing in action, but she figured she'd try and tackle the mission of finding all of her belongings later. One thing she could see, though, was her phone. She reached forward for the device and unlocked it swiftly, groaning at almost everything she saw.

It was already ten-thirty in the morning. If it wasn't a Saturday, her and Gina would be extremely late for work at this point. Thinking of her colleague, Rosa peered around the lounge to try and find her friend, but figured she had managed to get back into her own bedroom to sleep.

At this point, Rosa was late for her Saturday morning book club. She had a few text messages from the people at the club asking if she was alright, but she simply dismissed all of those messages carelessly. When all of the texts from various club members were cleared, Rosa stumbled upon a notification that made her groan to herself. She had fifteen unread texts from Natalie. Feeling a little guilty for not letting her girlfriend know what had happened last night, Rosa opened the conversation to read through the messages.

 _9:30PM: Hey babe, are you okay? Have worked asked you to stay late?_

 _9:53PM: Must be one hell of a case you're working. I hope I can make you feel better when you're finally home ;)_

 _10:17PM: I'm a little worried now babe, you've never stayed this late at work_

 _10:29PM: I miss you_

 _10:46PM: Maybe you just went out and forgot to let me know_

 _11:01PM: Just let me know where you are and I'll stop worrying_

Just then, Rosa was saved from the agonising task of reading all of Natalie's messages by the sound of quite sudden knocking at Gina's door. She stayed silent for a moment to try and hear whether Gina was awake and shuffling around in her room, but when all she heard was silence, Rosa steadily got to her feet. She kicked her other boot off to save herself from hobbling and tamed her hair out a little as she made her way over to the door, unlocking it and cautiously opening it.

She was met with the sight of a glowing Darlene Linetti. Gina's glamorous mother was bouncing Iggy on her hip as she took her sunglasses off to get a good look at the mysterious person who'd opened the door to her daughter's apartment.

"Oh, Rosa dear!" she gasped when she finally realised who she was faced with, "Gina didn't tell me you were staying here last night! She just asked if I could look after Enigma and being the brilliant grandmother I am, I said yes, but I told her I needed to drop her back off at ten-thirty because I have my pilates class! Is Gina in? I really am going to have to dash…"

The eccentric energy of Gina's mother was too much for Rosa's hungover mind to comprehend. She blinked and tried to process everything before finally constructing a response to Darlene.

"Uh, yeah, Gina is in, she's just sleeping still. I-I can take Enigma if you need to head off…"

Rosa was completely out of her comfort zone. She was awful with children and especially awful with _babies,_ but she'd been put completely on the spot and didn't know what else to do.

Darlene sighed a dramatic sigh of relief and nodded, passing Enigma to a clueless Rosa. Iggy gurgled a little at being passed to Rosa but as the Detective wrapped her arm around the child and held her supportively against her hip, she seemed to adjust well to being held by her. Seeing no discomfort from her granddaughter, Darlene took her chance to leave.

"Tell Gina I said hello! Have a great day, dear!"

With that, the Linetti woman had rushed back off down the hall. Sighing, Rosa stepped back and closed the door quietly behind her, turning back to walk into the lounge. Her hungover state most definitely wasn't the best state to be looking after an infant in, but Iggy oddly seemed to take a liking to Rosa. The small child giggled and reached a small hand out, tangling it in Rosa's messy curls. She seemed fascinated by the fluffy texture and her infectious giggles only got louder. Rosa couldn't suppress the grin that the child's actions caused. When Iggy reached for her hair again, Rosa moved her hand to meet her's, and Iggy wrapped her little fingers around one of Rosa's larger ones. The Latina had never even considered having children, but in that moment, the warmth she felt in her heart made her feel ready to reconsider.

Just then, though, she was interrupted by the loud buzzing of her phone against Gina's coffee table. Rosa carefully made her way over to her phone and picked it up with Iggy still held securely on her hip. Of course, it was Natalie calling. There was a positive dread in the pit of the Detective's stomach as she prepared herself for the conversation, but she knew she had to confront her girlfriend eventually.

* * *

Meanwhile, Gina had woke up to the sound of her door knocking. She recognised the knock - her mom always rapped the door in a specific rhythm - but just as she swung her legs out of bed, she heard footsteps making their way over to the door. Curious to see how it played out, Gina quietly reached for her gown and wrapped it around herself, opening her bedroom door and standing in the doorway where she could see out into the lounge. She leaned casually against the doorframe and folded her arms, waiting to see how well her friend managed to look after her daughter.

It was a rather heartwarming sight to witness when Rosa did return. Gina had planned to make her presence known almost instantly if the Latina didn't notice her first, but being hungover, Rosa didn't notice Gina stood in the doorway at all. So, as she giggled at Iggy playing with her hair, the brunette just stood and smiled to herself. Perhaps it wouldn't be so hard to get by with Milton gone? She had friends she knew would help her out whenever she needed anything and now even Rosa was clearly better at babysitting than she'd ever told anyone.

Just as Gina was about to comment on how Rosa Diaz was secretly a big, maternal softie, the other woman's phone began ringing. Once more, Gina's interest had been captured, so she stayed silent. She could see reluctance plastered on Rosa's face and couldn't quite work out who it was that would be calling the Detective early on a Saturday morning, but when she answered the call, it soon became obvious.

"Hey babe, I'm really sorry, I should have messaged you-"

It was Rosa's girlfriend on the phone. Gina chewed on her lip a little as she watched. Rosa seemed somewhat distressed and she could almost hear the stern words of the mysterious girlfriend on the other end of the phone. She had clearly cut Rosa off before she could explain herself, and Gina furrowed her brow to herself. It seemed rather rude.

"I know, I know I'd promised to tell you when I finished work. I went out for a drink with Gina. Yeah, Gina from work. No, I don't actually hate her, we just pretend to hate each other. It's complicated. We're friends. She's been having a rough time lately so I took her out for a drink last night and crashed at hers."

Worryingly, Rosa's tone had become quite harsh and pointed. Rosa always got stern when she was being argued with, and apparently it was no different when she argued with her partners. The hostile conversation didn't go unnoticed by Iggy, though, who began to cry her high-pitched cry. Rosa didn't ignore this and turned to coo the child, bouncing her up and down slightly, only to be met by more snapping on the other end of the phone call.

"Yes, that's obviously a baby. Gina has a daughter. Her mom just dropped her back off here with us. Of course I'm looking after her, I wouldn't just leave her on her own whilst Gina sleeps."

At this point, Gina felt as though she perhaps shouldn't be eavesdropping on this conversation. Rosa's girlfriend seemed to be protesting and asking questions about everything, and her colleague was getting visually frustrated with her. She considered walking out into the lounge to make her presence obvious, but just before she could, Rosa snapped.

"I don't have to tell you everything I'm doing, we've only been dating a few months. I'm sorry I forgot to text you but I'm allowed to crash at my friend's place. We'll talk later. Bye, Natalie."

With that, Rosa tossed her phone down on the couch and turned her full attention to cooing and comforting Iggy.

Gina felt awful. Had she just caused Rosa and her girlfriend to have their first argument? Perhaps she shouldn't be relying on Rosa so much after all...


End file.
